The NFLRA's request for "marketing fees" is not a brand-new term

The current labor fight between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association hinges mainly on money and access to the workforce. As to the money, there’s one wrinkle that the league seems to be characterizing as a new demand.

From a Sunday tweet posted by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the NFLRA seeks "$2.5 million for marketing fees the league regards as worthless.”

If it’s worthless, why is the league already paying — we’re told — $775,000?

Multiple sources have informed PFT that’s the current amount. And while the NFL Referees Association has declined to confirm the number currently being sought from the NFL’s offer, the figure simply becomes yet another subject to be negotiated.

It’s a subtle but significant point. The NFL has created the impression that it’s something the NFLRA has pulled out of thin air. It’s not. It’s an existing term in the broader labor deal. Currently, it’s $775,000. The two sides currently disagree on what the number should be.

The entire term relates to money made via, essentially, the NIL rights of officials, through commercials, video games, and other proprietary content from which the NFL earns revenue.

The broader question is whether the NFL is serious about negotiating a new, mutually beneficial arrangement with the game officials, or whether the league is hell-bent on playing Russian roulette with the integrity of the game by locking the officials out, hiring glorified amateurs to replace them, and supporting the overall effort with the expansion of a replay system that in its current form needs plenty of work.